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A three-dimensional printing pen that can instantly turn doodles into plastic sculptures has left its mark on Kickstarter, a popular crowd-funding Internet site.

WobbleWorks LLC’s stated goal was to raise $30,000 by March 25 to get its invention, dubbed the 3Doodler, into production.

By 5 p.m. on Tuesday, nearly 2,200 backers had pledged more than $200,000. By noon Wednesday, it was more than $600,000.

“We started at midnight. We watched it travel around the globe and come back to the United States and just take off,” co-founder Maxwell Bogue told the Toronto Star in an interview.

“We’re completely ecstatic and in awe. We did not expect the speed of this response. It still feels like a dream, and it’s only been one day.”

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Bogue, 31, and his partner Peter Dilworth, 46, are toy and robotics designers who left other companies to create their own products.

Their Kickstarter goal for 3Doodler, aside from raising enough to cover the first-run production cost for about 2,000 of the pens, was to build a community of users, Bogue said.

“The community can say, ‘No we want it like this,’ and we can respond in a much faster way, and then produce a better product at the end of the day, which is our goal,” Bogue said.

The device, featured in a video on the company’s website, resembles a large pen. When you press a button, one end extrudes a thin string of plastic which hardens immediately and is cool to the touch.

WobbleWorks emphasizes that their invention is not a toy for children. The pen has a metal tip that can get as hot as 270C, according to the website.

“I saw a prototype of this thing last week and it’s very compelling. It’s a fun toy and actually quite useful for very simple prototyping of plastic objects. In a few minutes we were able to build a little wireframe cube and draw a TC logo . . .” John Biggs wrote in Techcrunch.com.

“For starters, it’s best to take the 3D printer thing with a grain or two of salt,” Brian Heater of engadget wrote. “Calling the 3Doodler a 3D pen is a bit like calling a high-end ink pen a 2D printer. The device is actually quite simple, but pretty brilliant.”

The device has garnered attention from artists and tech lovers who are interested in 3D printing. That’s where a specialized printer uses computer drawings to lay down thousands of tiny layers of resin to create an object. The process, still in its early days, been touted as the next wave of the Industrial Revolution, with the power to transform manufacturing and retail.

But thus far, the cost of 3D printing systems and the ability to use the complicated software have curbed widespread adoption.

Bogue and Dilworth acquired their 3D printer about two years ago.

“It was the greatest toy we have ever purchased because it made new toys. We just became obsessed with them and this [invention] was borne out of that,” Bogue said.

Bogue says they are already in talks with a factory in China that can produce as many as 100,000 pens if the demand materializes. They hope to begin delivering the device this fall.

Online naysayers suggest the gadget is a glorified glue gun. Others questioned whether Bogue and Dilworth have what it takes to get their invention produced.

Bogue is well aware of the skepticism. He says that the six years he and Dilworth have spent in the toy industry, mostly in China, on the production line for other companies, has given them the experience they need.

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